Thursday, November 1, 2012

I can't believe I hardly posted during Crocktober. Someone should really take away my internet license. If you are joining me from the east coast, please know that I'm thinking of you and hope that you are reading this somewhere in a safe, well-lit, cozy, and dry place. If you are able to do so, here is the information to donate to The Red Cross to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Every little bit helps. Thank you.

I've got a beautiful, velvety black bean soup for you today. The tang comes from three kinds of citrus-- lemon, lime, and orange. You can prepare this completely and totally vegan by using veggie broth, and steer clear from the liquified chicken that I used (I already had it in the pantry).We share the leftovers with my friend Jenny, and she reported back that the lemon twist at the end was a nice surprise and a great flavor combo.

The Ingredients.

serves 8

1 pound black beans, soaked overnight and drained

1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

1 orange, juiced

1 lime, juiced

4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable!!)

1 lemon, sliced in wedges for serving (not pictured in the ingredients, and the one pictured in the final shot looks like a lime because I plunked it right off the tree and it wasn't ripe yet! oops.)

The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Put the soaked and drained black
beans into your slow cooker.

for a quick soak method: place dried beans into a large saucepan on the stovetop with a bunch of fresh water. Boil rapidly for 10 minutes, then turn off heat and cover the pot. Let the beans sit for at least one hour before draining.

Add the
tomatoes, garlic, bell pepper, and all dried spices. Now add the orange and
lime juices, and stir in the broth until the spices and broth are
completely distributed. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or until the
beans are completely soft. Blend with a hand-held stick blender (I use this one, but mine is white) or carefully scoop the
soup into a traditional blender and pulse until the soup is fully blended.

Serve each bowl with a lemon wedge, to use at the table for
an even more pronounced burst of citrus.

The Verdict.

This soup feels like a vacation in a bowl. The bit of heat
from the chipotle chile powder is washed away by the fresh citrusy tang. My
whole family loved this soup, as did our neighbors! I kept my soup pretty light, but Adam and the kids added cheese, sour
cream, and avocado slices to their bowls (and Tostitos scoop chips....).

I hope you had a very happy and safe Halloween. My kids all went out, although the baby (now 2 1/2) really just wanted to stay home and eat loads of candy. I somehow scheduled orthodontist appointments for my big kids later today, so they really did a top-notch job of flossing and brushing last night --- which makes me wonder if I should just make this a standing appointment? Hmmmmm.

14 comments:

This looks and sounds FABULOUS. I will be making it soon (with vegetable broth.) Also on the agenda for "soon" is your eggplant parm. Made it last month and it was surprisingly terrific. Thanks for helping a sister out.

This sounds yummy! I will fix it for my vegetarian daughter when she is home from college.

She loves your Sloppy Lentils, by the way! I usually have that slow-cooking when she comes home. Your book MORE MAKE IT FAST, COOK IT SLOW has been great for finding recipes that everybody likes. Thanks!

Hmm. I have black beans. And peppers. And all the other ingredients apart from the lemon and lime. And I've spent all the grocery money. I see black bean soup in my future... would it work without the citrus, do you think?

I followed this recipe exactly, and I'm a good cook. In short, it's terrible. I soaked my beans overnight, and the crockpot was on low for 8 hours. The beans were completely hard. I turned the crock pot up on high for another 4 hours until I just had to go to bed, and the beans had barely softened. There's no heat at all, the citrus is undetectable, and the only interesting flavor is the all spice and comino. It needs serious reworking.

My soaked overnight black beans were hard too but once blended, seemed to be Ok. We'll see how this 40 something digestive system handles it. Spices were great. I forgot to do lemon at serving so will do that for tomorrow night leftovers. Will try Low sodium canned black beans next time. Good healthy meal.

This was great, even my picky kids and neighbors kids ate it! I did cook it on high for most of the time...better safe than sorry. But a word of caution to those complaining of "hard beans"....don't salt the water, this can keep the beans crunchy from what I've heard. We made it with some lime/cilantro rice. Thanks for the great soup!

Just finished eating mine and the spices and citrus were great (you really get the citrus taste when you add the lemon) but it seemed mine turned out too soupy and, like others, the beans were too hard (still edible, though). I'm thinking you could definitely used canned black beans for this. And I think I will cook it on high next time.